Lab Members

Nicholas T. Seyfried, PhD
Professor
Scientific Director, Emory Integrated Proteomics Core
Contact Dr. Seyfried

Nicholas T. Seyfried obtained his B.S. in biological chemistry from Boston College and his D.Phil. in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine he employed cell-based quantitative proteomics methodologies to characterize protein aggregation and post-translational modification events that underlie neurodegenerative diseases. He also developed immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) techniques for the enrichment of phosphopeptides from human brain tissue. Prior to this work, Dr. Seyfried held a postdoctoral research position in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia. Here his research focused on the use of hydrogen/deuterium amide exchange Fourier transform mass spectrometry as a method to study protein-carbohydrate interactions. Dr. Seyfried is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Neurology and is a member of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease. 

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Emory School of Medicine Faculty Profile

Eric B. Dammer, PhD
Bioinformatic Scientist
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Eric B. Dammer is an Associate Bioinformatic Scientist who has worked in the Center for Neurodegenerative disease since 2008. He currently maintains and automates proteomics analysis pipelines using the R language, specializing in coexpression analysis and systems biology for -omics datasets. He has previously worked on the bench performing various biochemistry methods to identify and classify aggregation properties of proteins in neurodegeneration, to sort pure cell type nuclei from postmortem human tissue for downstream applications, and to image cells and tissues undergoing stress. Other interests include proteomics of post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation and ubiquitination, as well as histone modifications influencing epigenetics in neurodegeneration. As a graduate student at Georgia Tech beginning in 2005, Eric focused on molecular genetics of an orphan nuclear receptor involved in sex differentiation and required for transcription of steroid-producing enzymes, particularly cytochromes of the p450 class. He began his scientific career performing electrophysiology with a two-electrode voltage clamp to study the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) anion channel structure in combination with alanine-scanning mutagenesis. Eric has co-authored 116 peer-reviewed publications as of January 2023. Biosketch>>

Duc Duong, BS
Core Director (Quantitative Service), Emory Integrated Proteomics Core
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Aleksandra (Ola) Wojtas, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
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Aleksandra (Ola) Wojtas received her B.S. and M.S degrees in Biotechnology from University of Silesia in Poland. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a research technician at Mayo Clinic where she focused on uncovering the causative and risk-based genetic variants associated with neurodegenerative disorders. She then completed her PhD in Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in 2019 where her work centered on elucidating the biological function of the clusterin (CLU) gene in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Wojtas is now a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Seyfried’s lab interested in applying innovative proteomic approaches to identify mechanisms underlying cerebrovascular dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.

Lingyan Ping, PhD
Senior Associate
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Lingyan Ping received her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Wuhan University in China in 2012. She joined Dr. Nicholas Seyfried's lab as a postdoc in 2016. Lingyan’s research focuses on quantitative proteomics in Alzheimer’s Disease from human post-mortem brain tissue, including total proteome and phosphoproteome. She is also working on cerebrospinal fluid and plasma samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients using TMT quantitative proteome method.

Sarah Shapley, BS
Graduate Student
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Sarah Shapley received a B.S. in Neuroscience and Biology from Baldwin Wallace University. She defended her senior thesis on investigating the role of citrullination during central nervous system myelination. Throughout undergraduate studies, Sarah engaged in additional fellowship opportunities, including developing a pipeline to create preclinical models of Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease at the Jackson Laboratory (2018) and studying Epstein-Barr virus immunoreactivity of active and stable multiple sclerosis patients at the National Institutes of Health (2019). Sarah is currently a Ph.D. student in Emory’s Neuroscience program and joined the Seyfried laboratory in 2021, where she investigates factors perpetuating tau aggregation in neurodegenerative disorders.

Pritha Bagchi, PhD
Associate Scientist
Core Director (Analytical Service), Emory Integrated Proteomics Core
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Pritha Bagchi received her Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology. As a graduate student, she joined Dr. Christoph Fahrni’s lab, where her major contribution was characterization of a novel set of colorless, water soluble, air-stable Cu(I) affinity standards with varied binding affinities. After her Ph.D., Pritha worked with Dr. Melissa Kemp for a year to develop assays to selectively detect redox-sensitive proteins from cellular extracts using Redox-DIGE. She then received the ORISE fellowship and moved to CDC, where she measured urinary metabolites of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using UPLC-MS/MS to assess national exposure levels to VOCs originating from tobacco smoke and other sources. Pritha is currently an Associate Scientist in Emory Integrated Proteomics Core, where she oversees the daily operations including sample management, data analysis and reporting. Additionally, she provides pre-consultation to clients and helps them interpreting the results. In 2022, Pritha was elected as the President for the Southeastern Association of Shared Resources (SEASR). She is also the Program Coordinator of the Atlanta Athens Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group (AAMSDG) and a certified Lean Six Sigma Green belt.

Qi Guo, MS
Researcher
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Qi Guo, Master of Science, is graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and now working as a researcher in Dr. Seyfried’s lab. Qi’s project is to develop a label-free targeted parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) assay to address what RNA binding proteins co-aggregate with Tau in early asymptomatic (AsymAD) and symptomatic stages of AD. Qi is also working as part of the Proteomic core, which provides protein analytical services by cutting edge mass spectrometry.

Erica Modeste, BS
Graduate Student
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Erica Modeste received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Richmond in 2015. Following undergraduate study, Erica worked for two years with a program at University of Richmond that aimed to support those underrepresented in the STEM fields through mentorship and interdisciplinary courses and research. Erica is now working towards her Ph.D. at Emory University, and her research focuses on using proteomic network approaches to elucidate racial differences in Alzheimer’s disease. 

Sydney Nicole Sunna, B.S.
Graduate Student
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Sydney Sunna received a double-major B.S. in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science and Molecular and Cellular Biology from The University of Arizona in 2017. Following undergraduate study, Sydney worked for one year as a research technician studying post-transcriptomic modifications in neuropathic pain. Sydney is now working towards her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Emory University, and her research uses a combination of systems biology and bioinformatics to analyze cellularly distinct proteomes obtained from mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.

Cheyenne Hurst, BS
Graduate Student
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Cheyenne Hurst received a B.S. in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Florida where she participated in research focused on molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease. After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked as a research technician at Emory University studying protein interactions in Parkinson’s disease. Cheyenne is currently a PhD student in the Neuroscience program here at Emory investigating the importance of the synapse in neurodegenerative diseases and how the synaptic proteome changes in Alzheimer’s disease.

Kathleen Carter, PhD
Associate Scientist, Bioinformatics
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Kathleen Carter is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Seyfried’s lab. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus in Computational Biophysics in 2018 from Georgia State University where her research focused on modeling proteins and small molecules that associate with the minor groove of DNA. Prior to her Ph.D., she worked at Radiant Research in St. Petersburg, Florida assisting with investigational new drug trials (2011-2012) where she acquired firsthand knowledge of both the clinical and pharmaceutical sides of drug discovery. Kathleen joined the Seyfried lab in the fall of 2019 and her current efforts include developing systems biology analysis and visualization pipelines for proteomics and transcriptomics datasets in R and Python. She focuses on providing comprehensive insight to biomarker selection in Alzheimer’s disease in order to elucidate the pathophysiology of the disease and potential drug targets.

Caroline M. Watson, PhD
Associate Scientist
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Caroline Watson received her B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from College of Charleston and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia. She did her graduate work with Dr. Ronald Orlando and Dr. Joshua Sharp investigating protein structure and protein-carbohydrate interactions using hydroxyl radical protein footprinting coupled with mass spectrometry. During her ORISE fellowship at the CDC, she developed robust methods to quantify nerve agent exposure in human blood products using protein biomarkers. She joined EGL Genetics, formerly Emory Genetics Lab, to develop clinical assays and managed staff for the Biochemical Genetics Division as the Operations and R&D Supervisor. Caroline is currently an Associate Scientist in Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine. She develops targeted mass spectrometry methods with clinical implications for Alzheimer’s disease.

Christine Bowen, BS
Graduate Student
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Christine Bowen is a current PhD student in the Biochemistry, Cell, and Developmental Biology Program. She received her Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Appalachian State University. She proceeded to spend two years at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) as a Post-Baccalaureate. There she studied neuroinflammation as part of the National Toxicology Program (NTP). More specifically, she studied how flame retardants change the bioenergetics of Microglia. Christine is most interested in understanding how neuroinflammatory diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, change the function and behavior of Microglia.

Joshna Gadhavi, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
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Joshna received her Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar where her research was focused on charge neutralizing post-translational modifications on amyloid proteins and amyloid peptides. She joined Dr. Seyfried’s group in 2022 where her research interests include the identification of various interacting partners with amyloid proteins which are involved in neurodegenerative diseases and the role post-translational modifications on tau and other AD related proteins.

Edward Fox, PhD
Associate Director, Research Projects
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Eddie received his Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland in 2007. He has over 15 years program and project leadership experience in life science research and assists on a number of AD multi-omic research projects within the Seyfried lab and at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease.

Anantg Shantaraman, MS
Bioinformatics Analyst
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Ananth Shantaraman has earned an M.S. in Bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has implemented algorithms for peptide/protein quantification and analysis of Mass Spectroscopy Proteomics data. Ananth has collaborated on several research projects with investigators at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease.

Sean Kundinger, BS
Graduate Student
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Sean Kundinger received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. Following undergraduate study Sean volunteered at Marquette University and worked at Sigma-Aldrich before being hired as a Research Technologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he studied kinesins in the developing retina. Sean earned his Ph.D. at Emory University, and his research focuses on Arginine-rich RNA binding proteins and mechanisms of protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease.

Ian Diner
Lab Manager

Ian graduated from Emory University in 2012 with a double major in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology (NBB) and Chemistry. His research focused on the study of protein aggregation events in neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on RNA binding proteins. 

Chelsea Dunn
Research Intern

Chelsea completed her undergraduate degree at Hampshire College in May 2014 with a focus in biochemistry, neuroscience, and improvisational cello performance. She worked as a research specialist in the Department of Biochemistry at Emory University from 2014-2017.  She is interested in furthering a career in biochemistry research.

Maotian Zhou, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Maotian Zhou was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine. In 2015, he earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Wuhan University, China. In his work, some potential innate immune related modulators were identified by mass spectrometry technique. After completing his Ph.D., Maotian accepted a postdoctoral position in MD Anderson cancer center, department of radioactive oncology, in Houston, working with Prof. Junjie Chen. During that time, he studied the protein interaction network in DNA damage related pathways. In 2017, he moved to Emory University to continue his postdoctoral study. His work included developing and using a new targeted proteomic method to identify early diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in human biofluids, including cerebrospinal fluid and serum.

Yuyang Zhu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Yuyang Zhu received a B.S. in Chemistry from Hunan University, China in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in Dr. Amanda Jones' group at Wake Forest University in 2015. After that he joined Dr. Xuezheng Song's group as a postdoc to purify, characterize natural N-glycans and investigate binding affinity between glycans and various lectins using microarray technique. Dr. Zhu's postdoc research in Dr. Nicholas Seyfried's lab utilized glycan microarrays for biomarker discovery in Alzheimer’s disease plasma and brain tissue.

Sruti Rayaprolu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
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Sruti Rayaprolu graduated from University of North Florida in 2010 with a B.S. degree in biology and minor in studio art. Prior to her Ph.D., she worked at Mayo Clinic Florida as a research technician (2011-2013) where she studied the genetics of Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a focus in Neuroscience in 2018 from University of Florida where her graduate research was focused on developing and characterizing mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases. Sruti is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Seyfried’s lab and is interested in defining cell-type specific proteomic alterations associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Prospective graduate students should apply to the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS). Dr. Seyfried is a training faculty member of the Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology (BCDB) and Neuroscienceprograms within the GDBBS. Interested postdoctoral fellows should contact Dr. Seyfried directly. Applications should include a summary of research experience and interests, and a C.V. with contact details for at least three potential references. Candidates with their own funding or interested in applying for fellowships should contact Dr. Seyfried at any time.